EA has announced it will be releasing a free Battlefield Heroes game in the summer.

Developed by series veteran DICE, it will be a cartoon-inspired war gamepowered by advertising and micro transactions. This is known as "Play 4 Free".

Aimed at the mass market, the game will offer a downloadable client, lots of character customisation and hours of shooting madness.

Its fresh art direction will help it stand out, too, just like Team Fortress 2 did last year. Oh, it looks quite similar. Perhaps it's just a coincidence like the Burnout Paradise cover image.

"There's something here for all types of players - be it our core Battlefield fans or casual gamers," said Ben Cousins, big cheese at DICE.

"With the new online model we will continually add new content to keep the game fresh and keep players engaged, while integrating player feedback in real time. As a game developer, it is such a cool new way to make games."

Head over to the Battlefield Heroes site to keep up to date with its progress.

Oh sure, you'll get to drive a tank...after purchasing the unlock for it via a series of microtransactions. Then you can drive around mowing down all the hapless people running vanilla soldiers with just pistols who play for free rather than plunk down $50.

Yeah, it probably won't be ridiculous like that, but Play 4 Free is a concept that has seen abuse. We'll see when it comes out I guess.

Provided the paying bonuses can be overcome by a reasonable amount of skill, I'm down. Of course, by the time it comes out I'll have a better system to be playing stuff on. Damn holiday weekend buggerin down the UPS guy...